Micah Toll

This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new e-bike launches from the Lectric XPress2 to the Heybike Saturn, gigantic cargo e-bikes from Amazon, a deep dive into the Yozma IN10 Pro, Juiced’s Nomadix, and more.

Just a month after unveiling its new Vado 3 and Vado 3 EVO urban e-bike lineup, Specialized is already expanding the family with a new model that pushes even further into adventure-bike territory.

Meet the new Vado 3 X.

The moped-style electric bike market continues to grow, and now Heybike is throwing its hat further into the ring with the launch of its new Saturn e-bike. And the company is coming out swinging with specs that jump right off the page and a price tag that will make you say, “wait, whaaat?”

For many Americans, the idea of buying an electric bike with healthcare funds probably sounds somewhere between confusing and too good to be true.

But increasingly, that’s becoming a real option.

There’s a new player entering the electric dirt bike market, though the name behind it will already be familiar to many riders. LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand originally launched by Harley-Davidson, announced today that it has acquired the assets of electric off-road startup Dust Moto.

The move marks LiveWire’s first major acquisition and signals a significant expansion beyond its current lineup of street-focused electric motorcycles.

Lectric eBikes has officially launched the new XPress2, a significantly updated version of its commuter-focused electric bike that adds a long list of premium upgrades while still aiming squarely at the value-focused market the company has become famous for.

DJI’s Avinox e-bike drive system has quickly become one of the most talked-about names in the high-performance electric mountain bike industry, largely because of one headline-grabbing fact: the thing is absurdly powerful.

Now the company is trying to explain why.

Honda and LG Energy Solution are joining forces in Vietnam to expand battery-swapping electric motorcycles, with a new pilot project launching in Hanoi later this year.

There’s a sentence that still sounds slightly radical in much of America, even though millions of people elsewhere in the world would barely think twice about it: Every family should own an e-bike.

Sure, not every person and not every trip. Maybe not even as a complete replacement for cars. But as a standard household tool? Absolutely!

Amazon is officially rolling out e-cargo bike deliveries in Washington, DC, as part of a new pilot program launched in partnership with the District Department of Transportation (DDOT). The ten-month initiative, called “MicroFreight DC,” will see Amazon Delivery Service Partners making neighborhood deliveries using a fleet of battery-powered cargo bikes instead of traditional delivery vans.

Segway’s new Xaber 300 electric dirt bike is officially available for purchase starting today, with the company also confirming that the bike is now arriving at authorized dealers around the US.

The launch marks Segway’s latest push deeper into the electric powersports market, and the Xaber 300 is easily the company’s most serious off-road machine yet.

There’s a tough conversation happening in a lot of households right now. Teenagers want cool, fast electric bikes. Parents see viral crash videos and stories about reckless riding and understandably want nothing to do with it.

And both sides kind of have a point. Group riding and hanging out with friends are an important part of today’s teenage social dynamics, but those same teens can also be a danger to themselves or others when paired with a potent combination of the wrong bike and an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. Now though, there’s a new wave of e-bikes coming that might just make the best compromise to keep both camps happy.

When I first got into e-bikes, I treated them exactly as they felt at the time: tiny electric motorcycles with pedals attached. This was back around 2009 or 2010, years before the 3-class system was even a twinkle in the eye of an e-bike industry lobbyist. I had one of maybe a half-dozen e-bikes in a city of 400,000 people, and they were so new and hard to find that I had to build mine myself from mail-order parts and an old bike frame.

Juiced Bikes is officially back – and now it’s bringing its aggressive value pricing strategy to the electric dirt bike market.

The newly revived company, now backed by the same leadership team behind Lectric eBikes, has just launched Juiced Powersports, a new expansion focused on high-performance electric off-road motorcycles. And its first model, the Juiced Nomadix, looks like it’s a shot across the bow of the Sur Ron-style market with pricing that could seriously shake things up.

Or perhaps more accurately, with these specs and pricing, it’s a shot right through the bow and out the other side.

Police departments around the country are increasingly finding themselves in a difficult position when it comes to illegal electric motorbike riders tearing through neighborhoods, parks, and bike trails. In one Colorado town, officials are now trying a new strategy after struggling to catch many of the riders themselves: asking residents to help identify them.

Amazon says it will stop allowing the sale of high-speed electric motorbikes in California that exceed the state’s legal e-bike limits, marking one of the largest crackdowns yet on the increasingly fuzzy line between e-bikes and electric motorcycles.

One of the most underrated superpowers of electric bikes is the ability of many models to carry more than one person. Add a passenger kit and suddenly an e-bike stops being a solo commuter and starts acting like a genuine car replacement, passengers and cargo included.

Porsche is pulling the plug on a major chunk of its electric bicycle ambitions, with the German automaker announcing plans to shut down its e-bike motor division and cut hundreds of jobs as it refocuses on its core sports car business.

For years, “next-gen battery tech” in the e-bike world (and the EV world in general) has mostly been a promise. Solid-state batteries were always just around the corner, hyped in EV headlines but nowhere to be found on actual bikes you could buy.

That may finally be changing.

This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new e-bikes from Juiced, Ride1Up and Jackrabbit, e-moto news from Segway and Honda, new e-bike laws, and more.

Ride1Up is expanding one of its most popular lightweight commuter e-bikes with a new version aimed at riders looking for a bit more comfort on rougher roads and longer rides. The company has now officially begun shipping the new Ride1Up Roadster V3 Suspension model, adding front suspension to the sleek urban e-bike while keeping much of what made the original such a hit.

Tenways has been steadily growing its reputation in the commuter e-bike world, especially in Europe, where the company has become known for sleek urban bikes that feel a bit more refined than their price tags might suggest. But even humble Americans have been able to enjoy Tenway’s e-bikes for years, plus with the added bonus of accessing higher speeds and power levels that bump models up into Class 3 territory.

The new Tenways Wayfarer continues that trend, while adding something the company hasn’t leaned as heavily into before: more comfort, more utility, and a more approachable ride for everyday riders.

One of the biggest advantages of electric motorcycles has always been their simplicity. No clutch, no gears, no stalling – just twist the throttle and go. They’re basically big, fun scooters, at least in terms of operation. But Honda appears to think there’s still something worth preserving from the old-school riding experience, especially for off-road riders.

A newly revealed Honda patent shows the company developing a simulated electronic clutch system for electric motorcycles, complete with torque-boost launches and even haptic feedback designed to mimic the feel of a combustion engine.

And surprisingly, it might not be as gimmicky as it first sounds.

I recently had the chance to test out two very different styles of locks from Hiplok: Their Hiplok Urban D and their Switch 105. They come with unique use cases and security levels, so testing both gave me a unique view of when and where they fit best into my bike lock quiver.